Religion Impeding the Advancement of Science

Throughout recorded history religion has many times been blamed for inhibiting the advancement of science. This was partly shown in the book Angels
and Demons. The fall out from Galleos The Great Book Of Cosmology is a good example. However most of the mainstream religions have taken to letting
science be science. This can at times lead to people perusing silly ideas but also lets any discovery be examined, scrutinized, and confirmed or
unconfirmed by the rest of the community. So what does it mean when the predominant religion in the community shuns science advancement? An example
could be made of Mid Evil Europe. Times which are now past. So what does it mean when the advancement of science is being inhibited in modern times?
Some writing has been done on the subject. Here is what one person has said.

The question I want to pose—perhaps as much to myself as to anyone else—is this: With well over a billion Muslims and extensive material
resources, why is the Islamic world disengaged from science and the process of creating new knowledge? To be definite, I am here using the 57
countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) as a proxy for the Islamic world.

It was not always this way. Islam's magnificent Golden Age in the 9th–13th centuries brought about major advances in mathematics, science, and
medicine. The Arabic language held sway in an age that created algebra, elucidated principles of optics, established the body's circulation of blood,
named stars, and created universities. But with the end of that period, science in the Islamic world essentially collapsed. No major invention or
discovery has emerged from the Muslim world for well over seven centuries now. That arrested scientific development is one important
element—although by no means the only one—that contributes to the present marginalization of Muslims and a growing sense of injustice and
victimhood.

Discover also published and article on the same topic. Here is several excerpts from that article.

What people call the scientific method, he explains, is really the Islamic method: “All the wealth of knowledge in the world has actually
emanated from Muslim civilization. The Prophet Muhammad said to seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave. The very first verse came down:
‘Read.’ You are required to try to know something about your creator through meditation, through analysis, experimentation, and
observation.”Discover[
/ex]

The Islamic world looms large in the history of science, and there were long periods when Cairo—in Arabic, El Qahira, meaning “the
victorious”—was a leading star in the Arabic universe of learning. Islam is in many ways more tolerant of scientific study than is Christian
fundamentalism. It does not, for example, argue that the world is only 6,000 years old. Cloning research that does not involve people is becoming more
widely accepted. In recent times, though, knowledge in Egypt has waned. And who is accountable for the decline?

El-Naggar has no doubts. “We are not behind because of Islam,” he says. “We are behind because of what the Americans and the British have done
to us.”

Elsewhere, he notes the Prophet’s references to “the seven earths”; El-Naggar claims that geologists say that Earth’s crust consists of
seven zones. In another passage, the Prophet said that there were 360 joints in the body, and other Islamic researchers claim that medical science
backs up the figure. Such knowledge, the thinking goes, could only have been given by God.

Critics are quick to point out that Islamic scientists tend to use each other as sources, creating an illusion that the work has been validated by
research. The existence of 360 joints, in fact, is not accepted in medical communities; rather, the number varies from person to person, with an
average of 307. These days most geologists divide Earth’s crust into 15 major zones, or tectonic plates. Discover

The article also goes on to talk about how the earth quake and resulting title wave which killed hundreds of thousands of people was done as a
punishment by god. What we seem to have here, and the Discover article does menchen, is people are taking what is written in spiritual text, and
bending what is happening in the world to confirm the spiritual text.
So that brings the question as to why.
To me the "why" first seems to be a way to keep some political control. Religion has held political power through great periods of history. Now is
little different in some parts of the world.
The free flow of ideas has been inhibited in the past. I see the answer to the worlds problems could go two different ways. The scientists can find
solutions to our problems using science, or there will be no scientific answer and the answer will come with a very great loss of life by way of
famine, plague, or any other number of horrible events that the world was not able to prepare for because there was not a free flow of ideas to solve
the problem.
If you have taken the time to read this please feel free to post your comments.

I think religion has been impeding science for hundreds of years. I wonder how far along we'd be now if Galileo and Copernicus weren't persecuted
for their theories, if early scientists hadn't had to kiss up to the various religious leaders throughout the Enlightenment, and if people would get
over trying to force creationism down everyone's throats in the guise of pseudo-science.

We are surely a bunch of superstitious but smart monkeys. I, for one, look forward to the day that we finally come out of the dark ages of
superstitious thought and stand on our own intellectual merits.

Oddly, this was the theme of last night's episode of Eureka. The conflict with religion and science. I believe that religion acts as an anchor to
science. It is what they have to do to stay in business. Once people realize that they are a business like anyone else, they will find themselves out
of work. I am not a proponent of organized religion.

I don't think that the modern scientific system arose out of Islam. Rather, it's a direct outcome of Aristolte and something called "Aristotolean
logic." That's the forerunner of the medieval study of logic and science.

I was just asking myself the same exsact questions about religon and science 5 minutes before I saw this topic.

I live with my grandmother and she is a die hard catholic and I'm a agnostic. Most religous people I know are ignorant to science.

I work with a guy that is training to be a EMS Tech and he's 40 years old. He is a born again christian and he came into work the other day and
said....... "I learned something today"....... I said "What"......... He said......." You know that black spot in the center of your eye it's a
hole and light goes into it",.

I don't know what it is about religonists and science but most of the religous people I know still think the earth is flat.

My grandmother didn't know the sun was a star. I was showing her pictures from the hubble telescope and her eyes glazed over like she didn't belive
a thing I said.

I think most religous people don't ask questions about how things work becuase thier 2000 year old book gives them all the answers they need.

And when science contradicts what they've been taught they want the world regress to an earlyer time. Like what the late Jerry Fartwell said
"america needs to return to it religous roots". And I'm sure most religons feel the same whether it be islam or chistianity.

I think what where going through now in the world is a clash of civilizations technology and modernazation vs trying to turn the clock back so that
more poeple belive in their religous nonsense.

I belive some people in this world are still two generations from swinging in the trees.

Originally posted by MajorMalfunction
I think religion has been impeding science for hundreds of years. I wonder how far along we'd be now if Galileo and Copernicus weren't persecuted
for their theories,

I do agree with your statement on this. Through that period the religious leaders held a lot of power so a lot was being inhibited.

This is why religion is harmful to man. All modern day muslim countries would fare much better if they separated church and state. Europe is a prime
example, if the church had remained in power we would still be in the dark ages, fearing hell and a god that doesn't exist. The reason why we are
where we are now, is because people of reason defied the church and created secular states where scientific research could be led without the
searchers being burned on the stake for being satanic.

Originally posted by DamnedDirtyApes
I believe that religion acts as an anchor to science. It is what they have to do to stay in business. Once people realize that they are a business
like anyone else, they will find themselves out of work. I am not a proponent of organized religion.

Yes organized religion is a business. Some people realized that and some don't. I am not a proponent of organized religion either.

Originally posted by Indellkoffer
I don't think that the modern scientific system arose out of Islam. Rather, it's a direct outcome of Aristolte and something called "Aristotolean
logic." That's the forerunner of the medieval study of logic and science.

Indellkoffer,
I agree with you as to where science came from. The interesting thing to note is is where the man being interviewed in the article listed above
says science came from.

Originally posted by DarkSide
This is why religion is harmful to man. All modern day muslim countries would fare much better if they separated church and state. Europe is a prime
example, if the church had remained in power we would still be in the dark ages, fearing hell and a god that doesn't exist.

DarkSide
I think you hit the nail right on the head. I also think separating any religion from state is about the smartest thing any state, country, or
government has done. That means the political power is greatly removed from the religion. Many governments have really screwed things up in the past
a present, but I think some of the worst examples can still be when a government is controlled by religion.

Referring to the article you posted: at about what time did arabic-islamic countries start drifting away from knowledge/science into religion? 1800s?
earlier? later? It would be interesting to find out the causes of this.

Skyfloating,
Here is part of what was posted in the opening thread, I think it will answer your question.

It was not always this way. Islam's magnificent Golden Age in the 9th–13th centuries brought about major advances in mathematics, science, and
medicine. The Arabic language held sway in an age that created algebra, elucidated principles of optics, established the body's circulation of blood,
named stars, and created universities. But with the end of that period, science in the Islamic world essentially collapsed. No major invention or
discovery has emerged from the Muslim world for well over seven centuries now.

Just look at the problems regarding stem cell research, because one group thinks it immoral, they feel they have the right to interfere with research
that could one day cure many illnesses. They are outlawing or restricting research based on there religious beliefs.

Dragon Fire
yes the stem cell research issue is a good example. That is an on going heated debate, but in that example, not souly a religious one. As it is
using human parts from one person to save others.

Your example on creationism vs evolution is one of the better examples I think. That is also a debate that raged on for many years. Always being
met head on by religious groups. As to being taught in schools I never took any of the religious text classes when I was in high school. I did
however take a mythology class. Part of that class was to study what all the different mythologies said about the creation. When we received our
report requirements the last line of the instructions I found very interesting, it read;
"you may also include the Juda Christian Ethic."
When I first read that, I had to go back and read it again. Then when it did not change the second time, I began thinking, I wonder how many angry
parents will be calling her about this?
That weekend I took the Bible off the shelf and began reading it, the part of the creation that is. I of coarse did include the Juda Christian Ethic
in my report.
Looking back she got me to read the Bible more then any minister ever did.

Alot of people know that I'm Spiritual, and not a hard-core bible basher, I agree with you all, on the fact that, the church must be seperated
from the state.

To have the church consistantly waving 'herasy' in front of the scientific communities faces, is dispicable. This impedes progress for the
betterment of mankind.

Science and Technology have made our world a better place.

I for one, am thankful to the many men and women who have stuck their necks out for 'truth'; all the while being harrassed and threatened with
excommunication and even death.

Dark ages...boy oh boy...don't even get me started on that one. I'm a locomotive out of control.

I'm not advocating a 'free-for-all' when it comes to diving into the deep-end of scientific endeavorments. We still need to concider moral
implications. With every action comes a 'reaction'.
We must weigh and concider our actions for everything we do.

The church to me, is likened to a mirror. It began as a smooth surface, but somewhere along the way, the mirror broke into millions of pieces. Then
people tried putting the pieces back together in what they thought was truth. Alas, the mirror is now a very distorted and cracked blur of what it
origionally was from the beginning. The morals are there, somewhere in between all the cracks and crevasses, but that's where they lay. These
morals are not in the forefront. What has replaced the view in the mirror? Beurocratic unholy red tape.

The reason why Muslim Society has stopped researching science is because they've reached the point that if they research more, primarily into
genetics and biology, they'd begin to disprove their own religion (Evolution and such.).

I am a religious person, I agree with you that religion should be separated from states. Religion should be an option to the people who seek it, and
it should not be forced to anyone. I do not follow organized religion, infact I think it is very wrong. I tend to worship God in my own home and away
from the likes of churches and preachers.
I enjoy science very much, little stuff I tend not to agree with, however I praise the research they do for us, whether it is modern day medicine, to
new cars. Science saves lives for the everyday people, while religion should be about spirituality, and staying in touch with our inner selves and
God. Some may agree with me and some may disagree, that is why I love having freedom of speech.

Religion is pure mind control framework - perfected through time, in order to engineer societies by manipulation and abidance to authority,
permanently praying on ignorance and fear, propagating falsehoods and lies. It is true poison and enemy of reason and humanity whom is trying to
enslave all the way through history suppressing and silence human sense of liberty, freedom of thought and speech and expending human knowledge.

There is no in my opinion 'religious' questions, all are scientific, as R. Dawkins said: ?Religions make existence claims, and this means scientific
claims.?

If you want a real conspiracy with hidden agenda - religion is the one! So - yes, religion impedes the advancement of science and society.

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